A Study On The Enhancement Of College English Grammar Teaching And Learning By Implementing Classroom Assessment

Based on Brumfit's grammar teaching paradigm"communication, presentation, practice and recommunication", general grammar teaching classes always comprise four steps: presentation, explanation, practice and evaluation. As a very important method of evaluation, classroom assessments have been frequently employed in teaching. However, due to the negative backwash effect of some large-scale tests, many hold an unfavorable opinion toward all forms of tests, for which the usefulness of classroom assessments has long been underestimated. Therefore, this research aims to testify the usefulness of college English grammar teaching and learning by the implementation of classroom tests and explore how to guarantee their effectiveness by means of carrying out different treatments to an experimental group and a control group.This research manages to prove the usefulness of classroom tests in terms of college English grammar teaching and learning by conducting a three-month empirical study. Based on the results of College English Placement Test of Hunan University, two classes of non-English major college students at C level of 2008 serve as subjects. The researcher participates in the grammar teaching as language support teacher, assisting the mainstream class teacher in the design and implementation of classroom tests. At the end of this experiment, two groups of students undergo the same summative test simultaneously. Research data is solicited by test analyses, interviews and observations. Independent Samples T-Test is conducted on the results of the summative test, by which a significant performance difference (0.007<0.05) between the two groups of students is proved, indicating that classroom tests can effectively enhance college English grammar teaching and learning. Later on, the researcher employs McMillan's eight criteria of high-quality classroom tests to evaluate these test activities on the ground of Rea-Dickins'(2001) definition of four-stage classroom assessment, pointing out their strengths and shortcomings with a view to provide suggestions on how to improve the quality of in-class tests of college English. Meanwhile, the researcher deploys questionnaire and interviews to explore teachers'and students'attitude and suggestions on the implementation of classroom tests, which can help teachers better adjust and carry out classroom tests, hence realizing more fruitful learning outcomes.The significance of this research can be seen as follows: 1) This research provides further evidence that classroom tests on a regular basis can enhance college English teaching and learning.2) The eight criteria utilized by the researcher are very useful in evaluating test practices and prove themselves to be powerful weapons in quality monitoring and guaranteeing the effectiveness of classroom assessments.3) Data solicited from test analyses, evaluations, interviews and questionnaire serve as empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the experiment in question and are very helpful in improving the implementation of classroom tests, hence greatly promoting college English teaching.4) On the basis of this research, the researcher works out a tentative schedule on classroom test implementation for Experiencing English Integrated Coursebookâ… for reference.